Udana stars in Wayamba's title win

Isuru Udana, the 21-year old left-arm fast bowler, was the toast of Wayamba after he bowled them to a five-wicket win over Basnahira South in the final of the Inter-Provincial Twenty20 tournament at the SSC.

Udana, generating a lot of pace and movement off the pitch, accounted for four of the top five batsmen and was adjudged the Man of the Match and Series. The Basnahira South batting line-up had no answer to Udana's bowling and were dismissed for 144 at the start of the 20th over. Apart from Tillakaratne Dilshan, who made an attractive 66 off 49 balls with three sixes and four fours, and Chamara Silva's 41 off 27, the rest of the Basnahira South batting crumbled against the pace of Udana.

Two run outs and an unusual dismissal of obstruction of the field did not help Basnahira South's cause as they made several basic mistakes when batting. From a strong position of 133 for 1, they stumbled rapidly and lost their last nine wickets for just 11 runs. It was a sensational collapse.

Basnahira South reached the final as the only unbeaten team in the competition. They won all their matches but met their waterloo in the final against Wayamba, who carried too many experienced hands in their side. Mahela Jayawardene's presence alone inspired the team and proved a great boon to the captain Jehan Mubarak. Despite losing half the side Wayamba had the game under control and won quite easily with an over to spare.

Wayamba qualified for the final on a bowl-out after their semi-final match against Ruhuna was affected by bad weather. Basnahira South came through beating Kandurata, led by Kumar Sangakkara, by 15 runs with fast bowler Chintaka Perera proving a thorn with 4 for 19.